Hello from the other side! Hahaha. If you have read my last post, you might know already that I have started a new chapter of my life in Qatar, 3 months ago. Or to be exact, 90 days ago. Honestly, not much of a journey happened. I've spent the first few weeks searching for a job, not just for the sake of "having a job" but finding a job that I like. That's why the hunt took too long but luckily, I found it. After my job-hunting, believe it or not, I've dedicated the rest of my stay there in Qatar with my bed. Hahaha! I know, that's not really practical and sure, many would say that I've wasted my stay there, where I could have been enjoying the new scenery and adventure the place offered. But what can I do, if I really don't have the luxury to do some "touristy" activities there? That's why I told myself, when I get back there, with me having a decent job and money that I am earning myself, I would definitely verge myself on a Qatar adventure.

Anyway, as many would have known, before actually starting a job overseas, I need to have a work visa. And for me to have it, I need to exit the country since I am only on a business visa. More often than not, Dubai and Abu Dhabi are the usual country that expats do their exit. But I opted on going to Malaysia. One main reason is to see my family again. It felt like I havent seen them for years already after just spending 3 months in away from them. 

To avoid spending too much with the ticket, I didn't took a direct flight to Malaysia. Instead, I got to fly from Qatar to Indonesia and then finally, in Malaysia.

Qatar

My flight for Qatar Airways towards Jakarta was at 9:20am. I decided to head out to the airport at 4 in the morning, which was too early, I know, because I thought the ride would take too long and also because I was used to being at the airport at least 4hrs before the flight. It took me only almost 30 minutes to get to Hamad International Airport. 

First thing I did was check the status of my flight, and to my dismay, I saw that it was delayed from 9:20 to 11:00 and then later on learned that it really was 9:20 and then much later on, the flight was delayed to 10:15. Just make your freakin' mind! Read here for my Qatar Airways experience.

Since it would be in the middle of the night when I'll get to Indonesia and I assumed all, or at least most, of the money exchange facilities would be closed by then, I decided to get my IDR here at the end of check in counter row 9. For my 100QAR, I got 370,000IDR, which I think would be enough for my 12hours stay in Indonesia. 

I checked in my luggage, got my boarding pass, got through the immigration and security check -- all of which went on smoothly. 

Piece of advice when passing through the security check, you must must put your less-than-100ml liquids in a resealable transparent plastic and must be place in a separate bin together with all your other gadgets like laptop (if it were in your handcarry, you must remove it from there) when scanning.

After the security check, lies the big yellow bear in which HIA was known for. Unfortunately, I didn't had a selfie with it, but was lucky enough to snap this almost solo photo of it. 

I was supposed to go back here after I ate something, but one crazy thing happened. There was some sort of a mishap with the flight schedule that even the online site of Qatar Airways, the airport flight status board and even the crew were not in synced. But in the end, I got to flight out of Qatar at around 10. I'll just spare you the detail on to my other post.

I was a bit excited during the whole flight. To think that I will be flying in one of the best airlines in the world (even if I'm not in the business class, still though). Not to mention that this was my first time to fly on an airline with an entertainment system for each seat. I just came out of a cave that why I get too excited by these things. Hahaha! Read here for my Qatar Airway experience.

Indonesia

At 11:01pm, local time, we landed at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, Terminal 2 in Jakarta, Indonesia, which was a total of 8 hours of flying. 

As per the usual, I first headed to the immigration, which was the easiest immigration I've been through. I just gave him my passport, no other questions or forwarding ticket asked, and then got my passport stamped immediately with an exemption visa. Maybe that's the thing with a visa exemption? 

I then went straight to the conveyor belt and collected my luggage. Before exiting the arrival area, I had to pass to their customs, something like declaring the items you bring to Indonesia. 

I had layover time of almost 12 hours here, which means I will be sleeping again in the airport. I think this was way better to be spending the night in, compared with my last experience in Bangladesh. I found myself some decent place to stay, and yeah to lay too. 

Before getting myself some rest, I walked around the airport. The building was c-shaped and I actually walked the area twice just so for the sake of findig an electrical outlet but found nothing. So, after my little walkathon, I spotted myself an area on the ground floor, where there are other sleeping passengers. It was right at the back of A&W. This was at the end of the left side of the airport. The place was air conditioned, with a free wifi and with benches where you can actually lay flat, thats why getting some sleep here wont be so hard.  It was also convenient too, since the restrooms are right next door. The down side though, it got no electrical outlet and maybe nowhere in the Terminal 2. I prefer to stay on the ground floor which was for the arrivals because there's not much of people here. I stayed in the bench, where I set myself up for a goodnight sleep but unfortunately didn't got it. One factor was  I was a bit wary of my surrounding that I could not let myself fall into a deep sleep. Wary that someone might stole my luggage or worst, slip some illegal things on it. Nope, didn't took those risk. I just stayed awake this entire layover and just started to construct this very post at this moment.

At 7 in the morning, I went to Bakso Solo which was still at the Arrival hall, and got my Mie Ayam Bakso. I was asking them what its made of but they can't answer me (due to language barrier I suppose) so I had to discover it by myself. I think this is one of the local foods in Indonesia. According to my research, mie ayam bakso is a chicken noodles with meat balls. As to what I've seen and tasted, they somewhat sauteed the chicken with soy sauce and some other kind of spices first before tossing it with the noodles. They served this by placing flat noodles, seasoned chicken, chopped celery and green onion and fried garlic in a bowl which was then topped with fried wanton. The soup was served separately, together with the meatballs. It tastes good and tasted like Chicken Mami from the Philippines.

At 10:30am, I checked in my baggage and went straight to the immigration. I was relieved that, again, nothing was asked. 

Before heading to my flight gate, I went to this souvenir shop just right after the immigration. Since I have nowhere to spend the IDR I got, I decided to use some there. I bought 2 souvenir magnet and a "preserved" butterfly keychain for 30,000 IDR each and 20,000 IDR, respectively.

The terminal gates were nice. It was kinda set up in a middle of a garden. The walls of hallways towards the gates were made of glass, where you can see the green nature outside the airport.

Malaysia

My flight to Malaysia was the best time to make up with the lack of sleep I've had for the past 24hours. But If it wasn't for this some kind of a near-death flying experience, I will be asleep all throughout the flight. Yes, i actually thought i was gonna die back there. 

Just when we were about to take our landing to the airport, the plane suddenly flew up again. I mean, I already saw the Penang island and even the condo that I was supposed to be staying at, but then we went up again with nothing to see but the gray clouds. I felt that we were somewhat turning. I actually thought the pilot made a miscalculation of the landing point that he had to turn around to do it again, what a silly thing for me to think. Hahaha! Then the pilot suddenly spoke and from what I caught, he was  apologizing for what happened and said that it was because of the weather. I was not actually a bit worried at first, but then, the turbulence happened. This was the worst turbulence I've ever had. Every now and then, the plane was shaking in a very scary way and the worst part was the feeling of the plane going down, the way you feel when you are riding on a roller coaster ride when it suddenly goes down. Thats what we felt, or at least me. I can hear other passengers gasping with everytime these happened. And I can hear this woman in front of me sobbing. I was actually thinking if we do crash into the waters, would I survive? I'm not even good at swimming! Oh the horrible things running through my mind back there. I was close to crying myself too, so I prayed and prayed to calm myself down. I think all of this lasted for about 10-15minutes, tops. And then, there it was, the Penang island again and the condominium! I felt relieved with what I saw. I just really want for us to land and get out of the plane. And fortunately, we landed safely into Penang International Airport.

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I was fortunate and blessed with all thats happened during these 2 days,good or bad, from my first high-end aircraft experience to my worst turbulence experience. These really were unforgettable!